Buyouts and Acquisitions – ngmoco acquired by DeNA and Zynga may have paid $6.3 million for Bonfire Studios
Shortly after Zynga acquired Bonfire Studios last week, Ngmoco the publisher of Bonfire’s We Farm game has also been acquired by DeNA a mobile and social games giant in Japan. DeNA is paying a huge $403 for ngmoco as reported by Gamasutra. This acquisition will enable DeNA to expand its market share from its Japanese region to cover the West as well with ngmoco’s titles according to the official press release as below: Read more
Zynga closes Dallas studios (Formerly Bonfire Studios and NewToy)
Yesterday Zynga announced the shocking news that it was closing its Zynga Dallas and Zynga With Friends studios. Prior to Zynga’s acquisition of these teams they were known as Bonfire Studios and NewToy respectively. It was not long ago back in February 2013 that Zynga’s Chief Operating Officer, David Ko announced that it was merging all of its Texas operations under a single office as part of cost cutting moves for the struggling company. Now it seems those cost cutting measures have gone even deeper resulting in the layoff of all staff from the studios formed by Ex Ensemble Studios members. Read more
Paul and David Bettner leave Zynga
Ex Ensembler’s Paul and David Bettner who set about forming the hugely successful mobile studio NewToy have confirmed that they have now left the mobile gaming giant, Zynga. Paul and David Bettner joined Zynga after NewToy was acquired in December 2010. Back then the brothers commented that joining Zynga made perfect sense as both parties “share the same dream of building a social treasure”. Since the acquisition the NewToy studio which was re-named “Zynga With Friends” have greatly expanded the “With Friends” series of games from the massively successful Words with Friends to including Hanging, Matching, and Gems with Friends. Read more
Zynga Dallas announces Castleville
Things have been quiet for the Zynga Dallas crew who used to be known as Bonfire Studios. Infact, we haven’t heard anything from them since they were acquired by Zynga this time last year. It was a pleasant surprise to see Zynga announce the studio had been working on an exciting massively multiplayer social game called “Castleville”. The press release reads as follows: Read more
Age & Orcs Must Die updates and some information about Zynga acquisitions
Ok, so its been a while since the last update! Apologies for that! So what’s been happening lately? First off, the beta testing for Age of Empires Online has come to end. Microsoft and Gas Powered are now wrapping up the game with final touches before launching this August 16th. It wont be long now until eager Age fans get to play the next great game in the Age series which has sold over 20 million copies under Ensemble Studios. Luckily the bulk of the work on Age of Empires Online has come from prestigious ex Ensemblers at Robot Entertainment. Read more
Big update Friday: – Atomic City, Gnoll Hunters and something new from NewToy / Zynga
Wow we have a pretty big update from Ex-Ensemble formed studios today Friday 3rd June 2011, infact its so big we have three studios involved – Robot, Windstorm and Zynga With Friends. Incase your’re wondering the Zynga With Friends studio used to be called NewToy before they were acquired by the Zynga machine. The “With Friends” is a link to their previous titles, Words with friends and Chess with friends. Now that we know who we’re talking about lets delve straight into todays news! Read more
Two new ex-Ensemble studios form: BonusXP and PeopleFun. Word Chums expected as launch title (Part 1)
VentureBeat has reported this week on two new studios forming from Ensemble Studios veterans. The first studio to be announced was “PeopleFun” a new venture from one of the key founders and CEO of Ensemble Studios, Tony Goodman. The other announcement was also from one of Ensemble’s long serving employees, Dave Pottinger who lifted the lid off his new studio “BonusXP”. These new studios are both small studios focussing on mobile gaming and join the line of many other ex Ensemble formed studios to enter the mobile market including the very successful “NewToy” and “Bonfire Studios” who were acquired by Zynga. So lets take a look at these exciting new announcements in more detail! Read more
NewToy
NewToy was formed in 2008 by brothers Paul and David Bettner, before Ensemble’s closure in early 2009. The studio focussed on creating social games for the iOS platform with a vision to become the “Nintendo of the iPhone“. After a string of enormous success with their “With Friends” series of games, the studio was acquired by Zynga in December 2010. Since then the studio has worked to further fine tune their portfolio of games and created and Android version of the popular “Words with Friends”.
Latest news about NewToy:
- Zynga closes Dallas studios (Formerly Bonfire Studios and NewToy)Yesterday Zynga announced the shocking news that it was closing its Zynga Dallas and Zynga With Friends studios. Prior to Zynga’s acquisition of these teams they were known as Bonfire Studios and NewToy respectively. It was not long ago back in February 2013 that Zynga’s Chief Operating Officer, David Ko announced that it was merging all of its ...
- Paul and David Bettner leave ZyngaEx Ensembler’s Paul and David Bettner who set about forming the hugely successful mobile studio NewToy have confirmed that they have now left the mobile gaming giant, Zynga. Paul and David Bettner joined Zynga after NewToy was acquired in December 2010. Back then the brothers commented that joining Zynga made perfect sense as both parties ...
- Age & Orcs Must Die updates and some information about Zynga acquisitionsOk, so its been a while since the last update! Apologies for that! So what’s been happening lately? First off, the beta testing for Age of Empires Online has come to end. Microsoft and Gas Powered are now wrapping up the game with final touches before launching this August 16th. It wont be long now ...
- Zynga with Friends releases “Hanging with Friends”Zynga’s “With Friends” studio, who used to be known as NewToy have just announced their latest game to hit the iOS market – “Hanging with Friends”. Taking the hugely popular “With Friends” series further, this new game is based around the traditional Hang Man game. One player is tasked with choosing a word while the ...
- Big update Friday: – Atomic City, Gnoll Hunters and something new from NewToy / ZyngaWow we have a pretty big update from Ex-Ensemble formed studios today Friday 3rd June 2011, infact its so big we have three studios involved – Robot, Windstorm and Zynga With Friends. Incase your’re wondering the Zynga With Friends studio used to be called NewToy before they were acquired by the Zynga machine. The “With ...
- Zynga acquires NewToyHot on the heels of Zynga’s acquisition of Bonfire Studios last month, the social gaming giant has recently announced that they are acquiring another studio founded by ex Ensemble Studios members. This time it’s NewToy which is joining the mammoth Zynga studio. As a result of this acquisition NewToy will become “Zynga with friends“. The new studio ...
- Vijay Thakkar of NewToy discusses the benefits of quick and easy game patchingVijay Thakkar an ex-ES programmer who had a short spell as programmer and then lead programmer at Robot Entertainment is now at NewToy as their technical director. Vijay recently took to the stage at the GDC Online to give his insights about the need to have the ability to quickly and effectively patch games post ...
- Quests on route to NewToy’s We Rule!If you have been enjoying NewToy’s kingdom building game “We Rule” on the iOS platform then you will be pleased to hear the budding developer is about to release a whole new feature for We Rule – Quests! According to the press release these quests will bring: -New Reasons to Explore -Exclusive Loot -New Quests Every Week This will ...
- We Rule nominated for various GDC online awardsGood news for NewToy the developers of “We Rule” a game where players can create and rule their own kingdom on their iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. If you do not have an iOS device you can see how the game looks below: We Rule has proved to be a very popular game and ...
- Paul Bettner of Newtoy also to speak at GDC EuropePaul Bettner from iPhone developer NewToy is also going to be presenting at GDC Europe along with Bruce Shelley (these are separate presentations). Paul’s talk is titled “Keys to Successful iPhone Game Marketing”. The talk is likely to draw on things from the studio’s expierence in generating highly successful iPhone games including the highly popular ...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
It’s that time again, the time to be festive and jolly – it will soon be Christmas and our favourite Ensemble-lites are busy working away at Robot, Zynga, Windstorm and GRL Games. 2011 is sure to bring lots of excitement; I expect we will see glimpses of Robot Entertainment’s secret Game 2.0 project next year, perhaps at PAX East. Windstorm Studios is also sure to release further information about Dusty’s project. Graeme Devine’s newest venture GRL Games will be in full swing with the release of Clandestiny for Mac OSX. Read more
